Search results (tags) for: "electronics"

Fresh Shops: Aula46

2008-08-28T15:41:00Z

What can I say, I'm a sucker for electronic geekery. I'm also a sucker for Pounce, which is how I discovered today's Fresh Shop. First of all, the moment I see resistors in a listing image, the seller becomes a contender. Perhaps it's a weakness of mine, but I like to think of the ability to spot dorktacular oddities as a good thing. Aula46 joins Etsy this month from Alba, Italy and by doing so, brings a collection of jewelry made from active components.

Jewelry made from electronics is gaining momentum as of late and is beginning to bear a variety of styles. My guess is this trend stems from the fact that the cost of the components is relatively low, the potential for upcycling all the electronic waste that accrues in the world is high, the components come in all shapes, sizes and colors, and that most components have axial leads or some other metal part which can easily be bent into useful shapes for jewelry.

My personal favorite of Aula46's available work is this rib cage necklace. While the ribcage necklace seems to be a popular trend in meta-wares, this piece deviates into a more pattern oriented little wonder.

Or this pendant—love that blue capacitor.

Or how about these off-square earrings? I love the light blue 5-Band Axial leads in the center.

The Ladder necklace. Is this a pun? I love puns. (Check out the definition of a resistor ladder.)

Here's a little interview we did with this Fresh Shop.

Can you tell us a little about the people behind Aula46?
My name is Eva, I'm 21 years old, and I'm a full-time student in my third year at the Academy of Fine Arts of Milan, where I study sculpture. Aula46 is the name of the place where I create—my second home—and is one of the rooms in the Academy. I'm the person behind this page; I create the pieces and follow the shop's progressions.

What inspires you as a creative person?
My intent here, and in my life, is to share with other people the fruits of my ideas, finding more and different ways of expression as I proceed. These jewelry pieces are the elaboration of other art works I have done over these years at the Academy. The idea is to create a series of small sculptures, each unique and individual, to keep near one's self every day.

The electronic parts I use in my jewelry are called resistenze in Italian, and they are pieces used for electronic circuits in many, many objects of our everyday lives. Electric circuits create paths, and by thier nature they permit the passage of energy and contribute to the function of something bigger, different. This is one of the concepts I try to develop in my work.

Nature, with its uncontrolled beauty, is of great inspiration to me, and I always try to enhance the materials I use. What I try to do is explore the material as it is, to learn its peculiarities and characteristics and play with them.

How do you like Etsy so far? What are your favorite features of the site?
What I love most is the possibility it gives people to explore and share with others, freely and independently.
I find Etsy to be a place in which to learn new ways to live everyday life, and I love the variety of people, ideas and creations it offers.

Anything else you'd like to add is also welcome!
I must mention my good friend larimeloom. She is also a native of Alba who helps me with English and the set-up of my Etsy shop, as she has been here much longer.

Looking for more Etsy newbies? Check out our previous Fresh Shops coverage!

Legal Info for Artists: Electronic Copyright Registration Now Available

2008-08-05T14:17:00Z

Dear Sellers,

I am happy to report that the U.S. Copyright Office is now accepting electronic filing of copyright registrations. Previously, I reported that the Copyright Office was conducting a beta test of this system. Advantages of Electronic Copyright Office (eCO) system include:

• Lower filing fee of $35 for a basic claim (for online filings only)
• Fastest processing time
• Online status tracking
• Secure payment by credit or debit card, electronic check, or Copyright Office deposit account

The U.S. Copyright Office's website has a great tutorial to help get you started. I have registered some of my work using the old school paper system (my personal favorite) and I tried out the beta test of the web-based registration system (save yourself a headache and turn off your pop up blocker), but I have yet to try out the eCO system. If you get a chance try out the eCO, please let me know what you think!

Check out SarahSays' past Legal Info for Artists posts here!

Handmade Kids How-To: Firefly LED Baby Booties

2008-07-25T15:32:00Z

Craft Zine and Michael Miller Fabrics recently sponsored CRAFT’s Michael Miller Baby Bootie Contest, with the many entries posted in a Flickr group. We were so charmed by these Firefly LED baby booties that we asked the creators to give us a how-to for the project.

Special thanks go out to Craft's Natalie Zee Drieu who coordinated this post. She is expecting a baby girl and has shared her favorites in the related items below!

But first, a safety disclaimer:
Babies should wear LED booties with adult supervision only, as small electronic components can be a choking hazard if removed from the booties. You can also glue the LEDs to the fabric for extra hold or use surface mount LED beads and sandwich them between the surface and liner fabrics.

Materials:
denim
yellow cotton
felt
cotton thread
conductive thread
elastic
yellow ribbon
2 yellow LEDs
2 CR2016 (or CR2032) batteries
scissors
needles
paper
pen
contact glue

Pattern:
Click here to download the PDF Pattern for the LED Booties.

How-To:

1. Download the bootie pattern. Measure the baby’s foot size and reduce or enlarge pattern to fit accordingly. By sewing the two paper pattern pieces together you'll get a more or less fair view of the booties final dimension. This can take a few attempts, but it is actually a crucial step, so take your time with measurements.

2. Cut the denim pieces after tracing the pattern into the denim's wrong side. You can leave a mark that will help you distinguish the left from the right bootie once the pieces are all cut. Then, cover the entire outside edges with blanket stitches to prevent the denim from fraying.

3. Sew the two pieces of each bootie together with the wrong side of the denim. You can mark an even margin with a pen to help guide you.

4. Cut a small strip of yellow cotton and tack it to the bootie's denim edges. Cut it on diagonal direction, as the fabric will stretch in the bias direction.

5. Sew the yellow edge to the denim (try to make the stitches as invisible as possible) and then remove the temporary stitches. Fold the rest of the cotton in. You can also sew it to the denim from inside to make sure it will stay in place.

6. Cut a little piece of elastic and sew it very well to the inner part of the booty. The denim is great for this because the inner stitches won't be visible from the outside.

7. The firefly wings are basically a double bow (without the loose ends) made with ribbon. Just sew it together with a few stitches and it is now ready to be sewed to the bootie.

8. After sewing the wings to the bootie (on the right side of the bootie), use the same thread to make the embroidery. It's really simple, so you probably don't need to trace a drawing first. Just try to make them more or less symmetrical in the two booties.

9. Cut a large stripe of yellow cotton, enough to cover the inner side of the bootie. After tacking it to the denim, sew it with some invisible stitches leaving the front part still to be sewed.

10. The LED (short for light emitting diode) is a semiconductor that emits light when a current flows through. The plus of the battery must be connected to the anode (usually the long leg) and the minus to the cathode (usually the short leg). This makes it clear which way to wire the LED.

LEDs also have what is called a maximum voltage, and you should not apply more voltage to the LED than this value. We've used a 3V battery (CR2016 1,6 mm thick), and since most yellow LEDs have a forward voltage around 1.2V to 2.2V, we needed some resistance to reduce it, so we've used conductive thread.

11. Put the LED in place and stick the pins inside.

12. From the inner side of the bootie, curve the LED's edges with a pair of pliers.

13. Now sew the curved edges to the denim with the conductive thread. Make sure you use a different thread for each of the edges and that they don't touch each other (this would short-circuit the battery). One foot (20 cm) of conductive thread sewed along the base of the bootie is enough. You can pass them through the bootie's sides.

14. With one of the conductive threads, sew a few stitches (cross stitches, for example) on the back part of the bootie sole. This will work as a "pad."

15. Cut a little square of yellow cotton to prepare a little pocket for the battery. To make sure the battery stays in place, make the pocket as small as possible. Sew all of the edges to the denim, leaving a small entry for the battery, like a buttonhole. Make another "pad" with the other conductive thread on top of the pocket.

The battery should be placed between the "pad" on the battery pocket and the other "pad" on the base of the bootie, in order to make good contact. Just be careful and make sure both wires only meet at the LED when the battery is in place. If you mixed up the polarities, there's no harm to the LED; just flip the battery over and it should light up.

16. Cut an insole from the felt using a pattern like the one used to cut the denim, but a bit smaller. Then cover it with the yellow cotton and sew it together. This insole will cover the battery pocket. Glue the half front part of the insole to the bootie. You will need to leave the back half part unglued so you can easily remove or replace the battery.

17. The final result! These aren't everyday booties, of course, so you might save them to be used on a special occasion. With the battery on, the LED will be lit for around two hours. You can even replace the LED with a small bead.

About the creators: Ana Pires and João Silva were born in the seventies in Oporto, Portugal and they're currently living in The Hague, The Netherlands. They're very keen on arts and crafts, though professionally they've chosen other areas. Ana is an accountant and she enjoys painting, knitting, embroidering and sewing. João is an engineer and his hobbies include building computers and robots, gardening and biking to work every day.

The items below are curated by Craft's Natalie Zee Drieu who is expecting a baby girl!

Handmade Kids Series | Special Kids Showcase | Baby Gift Guide | Children Gift Guide

Handmade Music Night 2008.07.08

2008-07-08T11:22:00Z

Handmade Music Night at the Etsy Labs is back on Tuesday July, 8th 2008! Brought to you by the usual suspects Etsy, Make Magazine, and Create Digital Music, this mid-summer Handmade Music Night is bound to be a #1 stunner! Here's a video about making your own instruments that features a past iteration of this event:

TUESDAY, TUESDAY, TUESDAY: artists, crafters, makers, musicians, and hackers unite to bedazzle you with chiptune gaming systems for music, strange alternative MIDI controllers and sound-mangling custom software, repurposed vintage synthesizer chips made famous by the Commodore 64, digital visuals, a musical Nintendo Wii balance board, wireless sensing controllers, and much much more! Come on down and check out this F-R-E-E community event, right here in Brooklyn at the Etsy Labs space.

If you have an awesome instrument that you made and would like to share, feel free to bring it on down and share in the community fun, if not just bring yourself and enjoy the festivities!

Handmade Music Night
7/8/08 - 7pm
Etsy Labs
325 Gold St., 3rd floor
Brooklyn, NY

Map

See our past coverage of these musical evenings.

Also, if you are in the Brooklyn area and want to learn to make your own guitar, be sure to sign up soon for this class taught by Ranjit of Handmade Music Night.

Handmade Music Night Featured on Current TV

2008-05-16T12:01:00Z

Current TV visited Etsy, Make Magazine, and CreateDigitalMusic's Handmade Music Night at the Etsy Labs this spring. It's an experience of wonder and geekery! Their video has been posted...Perhaps it will make it to their TV channel if you give it some love on their site!

Here are some more posts about Handmade Music Night.

Hey! Log into Current.com to give us a thumbs up on this page!

Etsy Finds: Recycled Circuit Board Key Chain

2008-04-19T14:07:00Z

Hey all you lovers out there in the webbed world of intergalactic communication, this is Jakob aka vonmilan. I am new to Etsy and this is my first Storque article, so go easy on me.

My Etsy name is vonmilan and I am the new receptionist/office-manager/office-geologist. I found this super cool recycled keychain by DebbyAremDesigns that looks like something between the cyborg-future and the Dark-Ages-past, kind of like what those kids in "Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome" carry around — records attached to their Gandolf-staffs. But check it out for yourself!

Here's my About Us photo (video and the rest coming soon):

Need a daily fix of Etsy Finds? Sign up for the Etsy Finds e-mail! Conveniently delivered to your inbox on the daily!

EGCG | Trashion | EcoEtsy | Environmentally Friendly Gift Guides | Earth Tones Series

Etsy Finds: Electronic Fashion

2008-04-07T11:59:00Z

I heart electronics. I love it opening up old broken electronics and computers and looking at the little city made of electrical components.

In her profile componentgirl says, "I was originally inspired to create beauty from electronic components by a dead CD player. I kept thinking that instead of throwing it in the landfill, I might be able to create art from the parts. I pictured the board in my mind and all the small parts cried out jewelry to me."

If you have an affinity for electronics like I do, you're going to love her work. She incorporates electronic components into her jewelry and they are beautiful. I found her by doing a search for electronics in the search field at the top of the page: sometimes it works out just to put words you like in that little box and see what happens!

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Etsy Find: Analogue Ring

2007-12-13T04:15:00Z

This ring — which doubles as a working * microphone * — is so awesome! It is truly one of the "man-made miracles." Maker AnalogueAesthetics expertly combines modern jewelry with recording gizmo in one tiny finger-sporting package.

Great gift for so many people that love gadgets and for people that like to rock out!

Etsy in the Press: New York Times Geekery

2007-11-15T05:45:00Z

Etsy was mentioned in a New York Times article today, November 15, 2007. Read the piece, Tinkering at Home, Selling on the Web, at this link.

"Etsy (www.etsy.com) is a popular e-commerce site for people to sell their wares. Alongside more traditional items, it offers a scattering of tech-oriented accessories, including handmade iPod cases and charms for cellphones like those favored by Japanese schoolgirls."

Our good friends Phil Torrone of MAKE zine and Limor Fried of adafruit.com, are prominently featured in the article. We'll see them tonight for Handmade Music Night at the Etsy Labs, wherein NYC geeks share their hacker musical finery.

Handmade Music Night- Thursday 11/15 8:00pm

2007-11-14T09:57:00Z

Handmade Music Night is back!

The semi-regular evening of DIY musical oddities brought to you by Etsy, Create Digital Music, and Make Magazine, will mercilessly descend upon yet another peaceful Brooklyn evening. Expect an informal, free party + show and tell + science fair featuring self-made electronic musical projects.

Already confirmed for the lineup:

The MIDI Pick, a pressure-sensitive DIY digital guitar pick by Roy Vanegas
Mystery musical controllers from Eric Singer, the mind behind the world-infamous LEMUR, an educational outlet in Brooklyn and collective of musical robot/electronics-creating artists
Theremin-playing robots and possibly other surprises from series favorite Ranjit Bhatnagar. (See the Theremin robots in action, covering Gnarls Barkley. If we’re really lucky, Ranjit will bring his students. Students, if you’re listening, we’d love to have you there!
David Brynjar Franzson with a generative piece using custom software built in Max/MSP

Also, CDM's Peter Kirn will have a new iteration of his video/gesture-controlled musical creation, which allows users to virtually navigate musical structures via a webcam/DV cam.

Please join us!

Thursday, November 15, 8PM. Etsy Labs. 325 Gold St. 6th Floor. Brooklyn. See you!

Etsy Finds: FluteTronic

2007-11-05T01:46:00Z

As a wanna-be musician, I'm always on the lookout for new-fangled ways to make unusual sounds. This electronic flute, the FluteTronic, by rarebeasts caught my eye as I was taking my daily jaunt through Etsy listings. You play it like a normal flute, but the noise that comes out is something akin to a heavy-metal tune by the band Air. Perfect for someone who has no idea how to really play a woodwind, but wants to lay down some radical sounds. Flute-style.

A Moment with the Monome

2007-10-19T14:32:00Z

I recently visited Brian Crabtree and Kelli Cain at their loft in Philadelphia. Located within earshot of the rattling El train, their home also doubles as the laboratory for their unique digital creation, the Monome. Part looping station, part scientific gadget, the Monome is a simple white square filled with several rows of buttons that can be programmed for a myriad of sounds, samples and functions. "People have used it as a drum machine, sequencer, as an egg timer..." said Crabtree. The open-source software can be used and altered by anyone.

Crabtree and Cain assemble most of the Monomes at their loft, a daunting process that involves countless hours of wiring and soldering. A new Monome, the 256, was about to be released to the public when we visited. Crabtree assembled one for us on the spot. Click the video below to watch several performances and some of the other creations Crabtree and Cain cooked up including silk-screened shipping boxes, felt electronics, and a mud oven for cooking homemade pizza!

Electronic Press Kit

2007-10-02T15:12:00Z

We here at Etsy have decided to upgrade our bulky, paper-ridden press kit with a sleek new EPK, or Electronic Press Kit.

An EPK is a standard press kit in digital form. Instead of sending an environmentally inconsiderate stack of documents to our press and media contacts, the new EPK will consist of only one DVD, which can be reused or recycled in a number of ways.

Included on our EPK will be our press clippings, information about Etsy and its members, interviews and B-roll footage for television, and the Pièce de résistance, our beautiful new video about Etsy.

Last month, we teamed up with the talented people at Chop Wood Carry Water to help us make this tear-jerking look at Etsy. A special thanks to Etsy sellers kateblack, dewonapetal (yes, we are fixing the typo in her username that is in the video), kartdesign, our very own, reconstructionist, 1aeon, and sweetestpea (who will appear elsewhere in the EPK).

Without further ado, I present you with "Etsy: The Handmade’s Tale."

Etsy in the Press: Craving Handmade Protectives

2007-10-02T14:56:00Z

Crave, a popular blog for technology and gadgets, has posted an article on the "Best Etsy shops for decking out your tech."

Congrats to iPodcrafts, tinymeat, QuietDoing, WorkingClassHeroes, and janinekingdesigns for representing Etsy.

"Have you found a secret Etsy tech gem?" Crave asks. "Leave a comment."

Handmade Music Night Has Returned!

2007-09-24T12:20:00Z

HANDMADE MUSIC NIGHT: Thursday, 9/27 at 8PM

Handmade Music is an evening of original creations for music making, open to the creative minds of the New York area. It's equal parts party, show-and-tell, performance, and science fair, open to whatever oddball software and hardware people want to bring, complete or not. Some come with projects, others just to hear and see unusual new instruments, from software to game systems to homemade electronic instruments. Each installment brings plenty of surprises, but appearances confirmed for this one include:

* A featured performance by Richard Lainhart, a renowned electronic improviser and innovator.

* Seven-foot tall "Suburbanite" aka "60 Switches of Fury", a music controller by Eric Johnson.

* The Monome, a minimalist open-source hardware controller with grids of buttons.

* A fluid musical instrument controller entirely by webcam, by Peter Kirn.

* Lots of other things that may just appear.

Handmade Music Night is a convergence of the music community/blog CreateDigitalMusic.com, the kings and queens of all things DIY at Make Magazine and the Etsy Labs.

It's all happening at Brooklyn's community workshop, Etsy Labs, on Thursday, September 27th, at 8 PM.

We are located at:

325 Gold Street, 6th Fl.

Brooklyn, NY 11201

Take the A/C/F to Jay St. or B/M/Q/R to DeKalb.

See you there!

MAKE zine: Kit It Out!

2007-09-03T20:00:00Z

While there are certain folks who consider themselves "crafters" and others who would call themselves "techies" — I really consider all of them makers. Anyone who works with their hands, has boundless curiosity and wishes to bend technology in ways they see fit spans across multiple groups of creators. What's interesting is the intersections between normally separated groups — at our magazines (MAKE and CRAFT) we see a lot of projects combining electronics and what would be considered a "traditional" craft, like sewing. A few examples...

In MAKE 09 we have a great article on how to work with carbon fiber — originally used in aerospace, carbon fiber is extremely strong, but extremely light. So what would you do with it? Make your own iPod case with it, of course. Makers can form, lay up and cure their own high-performance composites. Making advanced materials and then using patterns (like the iPod pattern we supply) is becoming more common. Heck, you can even make kevlar using this tutorial! I fully expect to see a series of handmade artsy carbon fiber iPod cases on Etsy very soon — before Etsy there really wasn't a place where Makers could put their goods out there for exactly the right buyers.

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In our premiere issue of CRAFT we featured twenty three projects with a "twist" — embroider your skateboard, light up your clothing, knit your own boots, stitch a robot...My favorite piece is The Electric Tank Top by Leah Buechley. It uses silver-coated thread and a microprocessor to make programmable LED clothing.

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We (MAKE) are pleased to have a place on ETSY (make.etsy.com) where we can showcase our homemade projects (like the carbon fiber iPod cases, LED shirts ad more). I'm hoping to see a lot of projects we've covered in our pages made and remade and then showcased on Etsy for everyone to enjoy.

As we roll through 2007 with a place on Etsy for more "techie" goods I think there's something else we'll see — kits, and lots of them. You see, in the early 1900's and up until maybe the 70's, DIY (do-it-yourself) electronics were pretty much the only way a lot of projects were created. Millions of people built their own radios, and later kit companies came along and created a wide variety of electronic kits mostly aimed at the hobbyist. While kits have always been around somewhere, their popularity fell off the map some time in the 1980's.

Low cost goods from overseas, decreasing free time and the smaller number of people with the skills to solder or build really made it difficult for a lot of us to get excited about the prospects of new kits coming out.

However, something has changed in the last two to three years. People have started taking things apart and figuring out how they work, voiding warranties or simply exploring something that was broken. (Since everything breaks more now.) Also, the internet really took off — and I don't mean connectivity, but blogs, RSS and easy-to-publish sites where information about all this stuff was cataloged. As more and more people started tinkering, it became clear that building electronics again just might be something folks would consider fun — a newly re-discovered hobby.

For me, the best example is the MintyBoost USB charger kit we carry at MAKE — it's an extremely simple kit to build, but it's powerful, literally — it's better than any other iPod charger out there (it uses power more efficiently than every single iPod 9V battery charger) and you build it inside an Altoids tin, which we all have laying around somewhere.

Here's a video we created that shows you how to make one (along with how to make your own MP3 player, too!)

Building an iPod charger certainly isn't like making your own FM radio or robot. It's really unclear where all of this making is going, and whether we're in a renaissance of "making things" again. However, I'm sure this is how something like that would begin!

- Phillip Torrone, Senior Editor, MAKE

Some words from maker Etsy sellers:

GeekGear:

"Many of the ideas that inspire me come from Instructables, Makezine, Gizmodo, Hackaday.com and the new Hakzine.com...I think that part of the reason that my Etsy store has been somewhat successful is because there are not many 'tech' sellers and my items tend to be unique (I hope)...Most of the items I sell are given as gifts to husbands and boy friends."

blinkybug:

"I do periodically browse the 'Geekery' category and drop people a line if I like their stuff. I also meet a lot of like-minded people through various communities in the San Francisco area, e.g., Dorkbot, the SFMicrocontrollers group, the Burning Man crowd, etc."

MAKE & Etsy How-To: Hungry like the Wolf for Handmade Projects

2007-05-14T20:00:00Z

People, you must check out this How-to video from MAKE. You may be frightened…But you will also be charmed.

Matt collaborated with Bre here at the Labs (MAKE shares space with us at our Brooklyn office). They did a special screen printing project wherein they embedded audio, light and, well, magic into a custom t-shirt design.